Posts from April 2018

Forgiveness can be hard. Sometimes we know we’re supposed to forgive someone or something and there is this thing inside us that just won’t allow it. Sometimes, we’ve tried to forgive and we want to move on from something but we seem to just be brought right back into the anger and judgment and pain like it was new. Maybe it’s ongoing. Maybe you’re trying to forgive, but…

In most other religions that allow you to have a god and be part of his work, that god requires you to take part in making things happen. If you don’t do it, then it won’t happen. The beauty of this story is we see that God doesn’t need you to be a part of what he’s doing. Instead, he offers you to join in. He is doing what he is doing, that is not a…

When we move to the things God is calling us to, the beauty is we get to see him work. When we trust in his promises, we get to see him fulfill them. When we go where he is directing, we get to ride the wave of his will in our life. Jonah went to Nineveh expecting fire to rain down on the sky to destroy them. Instead, he got to see the craziest parts of the story…

The Assyrians were terrible to Jonah’s people. They were a constant form of oppression and suffrage. They were the people the Israelite had known and grown to hate and God asks Jonah to go right into the middle of their homes and preach. Some people think it was nationalism, still others call it racism, but in either form is was prejudice. He wanted God to destroy…

Jonah traveled to the city of his enemies. We miss that a lot in this little book. Where most prophets were awarded the option to stay at home and preach judgment to nations far away, God told Jonah to go to that nation, stand among its people, and preach there. When we think about God’s calling we often think about the doing something that makes us happy, whole,…

Jonah decided to follow God after all. Through his struggles and through his rebellion, God had still been faithful to Jonah and Jonah decided to give everything to listen to the calling God had put in his life. For many of us this is the biggest truth we can pull from this chapter. Jonah had a second chance. God wasn’t done with Jonah and as soon as Jonah realized that…

Jonah finally repented and ended up where God called him. This tells us something truly great about our calling from God. Even when we run, God is still going to send us to the places he needs us. Jonah thought he was suffering in the belly of the fish but really God was working behind the scenes. God was moving him where he needed to be while Jonah was getting his heart…

Can I exhaust God’s grace? Jonah’s story tells me no. It shows me a man who went way further than I ever have, who did things way worse than I’ve done, and still, God loved him. It’s like Paul. Paul told the story of his life before Jesus and how terrible he had lived. He was religious but his heart was evil. He was persecuting and hurting those who followed God. He did…

We live in Cincinnati proper. I’ve been in the same neighborhood for the majority of my life. It’s a nice part of town, for the most part, as long you don’t do stupid things. One joke though is how long it takes the CPD to arrive when you call them. If you call for something serious they’re right there. However, if you call because of disturbances, or car break-ins, or…

Jonah stays inside the whale and after three days and 3 nights he finally stops enough to pray. He had run, he endangered the lives of others, he tried to end his own life, being thrown overboard, and now after three days inside the nasty bowels of a big fish, he decides that something has to give. He realizes that this isn’t working and he prays. God will get your…

There is nothing worse than looking back at your life wondering what could have happened. Missed opportunities can plague the mind. It can leave us resentful of where we are because of the life that might have been. It leaves us hurt because of how things might have turned out. We’re left mourning the potential of a road untraveled. In the parable of the talent,s…

God saved Jonah. This part of the story is so great. God showed up in a very real way and made the fish swallow Jonah whole so he would not die. (There is a whole food joke somewhere in there, I just haven’t found it yet.) Sometimes it can feel like we’ve gone too far. Sometimes it can feel like we’ve ruined the world around us and there is no hope. Jonah felt this…